Process of producing alkali metals



Patented Mar. 31, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL rnAoocx, or WHEELiNG, WEST VIRGINIA, AssreNon. ro' wILLIs e. wALno 0! WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

{PROCESS or :enonucme' ALKALI METALS.

3'0 Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL PnAoooK, a citizen of the United States, residin at "Wheeling, in the county of Ohio and tate of WestVirginia, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Processes of Producing Alkali Metals; and I do hereby. declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of. the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to a process of producing alkali metals such as sodium and potassium in their elemental forms, and has for its object to obtain said metals procedures which will be less costly and more eificient than those heretofore proposed.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in the novel steps and comb'inations of steps constituting the procass, all as will be'more fullyv hereinafter disclosed-and particularly pointed out in the .claims.

In carryin I out'this invention, one may employ anhy rous sodium silicate Na siO or anhydrous potassium silicate K,sio,.

The oxides of these elements-M11 0 and K,O occur as intermediate compounds in the for-', mation of alkali metal silicates in general, and I prefer to employ for this. process those basic silicates which when decomposed will produce a maximum amount of these oxides, such, for example, as Na ,SiO. I next mixthe alkali metal silicate selected with charcoal in a fine state of sub-division or with some other form of carbon in a high state of purity. The quantity of carbon is prefer;

tween, say, 900 C. and 1300 ably in excess of that theoretically required and the charge thus produced is next heated in a closed furnace to a tem erature bealthough I find that a temperature of about 1100 C. or

- 1200" (3. is preferable, for in the case of sodium at such temperatures in the presence of carbon the silicate breaks down to silica SiO, and sodium. oxide Na,() and the latter is. immediately reduced in an atmosphere free from oxygen to the metallic state substantially inac'cordance with the following (inaction, when the mono-silicate is em .Na Si i-C&Na,-l-CO+SiO, 1

The thus prcduced is Application filed October 17, 1921. Serial 1T0. 508,261.

driven 01f in the form of a vapor mixed with carbon monoxidegas CO and is preferably led into any suitable and well known condensing apparatus where it is condensed to the liquid form, and separated from the said gas by allowing it tosettle to the bottom of the apparatus. But during the process of condensation a certain amount of sodium carbonyl Na((lO) is inevitably formed, which causes a loss of sodium and therefore a loss in efiiciency whencarbon is employed, as a reducing agent. When it is desired to avoid this loss, elemental silicon or ferro silicon FeSi may be employed as a reducing agent. This elemental silicon, or ferro silicon is preferably finely pulverized when use and when employed the reaction proceeds in accordance with the following equation in the case of ferro-silicon In this reaction only'the elemental sodium Na is vaporized and no loss in efliciency or trouble in the condensation of the same is encountered. It should be noted that this {last mentioned reaction takes place only because the elemental sodium being volatile, at the temperature stated, it is removed from the phase immediately upon its production. Otherwise, if the sodium remained in the reacting mass it would at once combine with the silica SiO present to form elemental absolutely essential to provide a suction in the condensation system so that the reaction will take place under a minus pressure instead of at atmospheric pressure as is usual in retort furnaces.

In other words, I find that by maintaining in the reaction chamber a sodium partial pressure somewhat under the normal. I am enabled notv only to prevent the reduction of the silica present, but also to effect amere rapid rtaction velocity at a given temperature.

Wha I claim is: 1. The process of producmg an alkali metal which consists in reacting on its corits responding anhydrous silicate with a reduc- 2.The vprocess of producing metallic sor dium which consists "in reacting on anhydrous sodium silicate With elemental silicon to drive ofi. metallic sodium and carbon wmonoxide; and recovering said sodium, substantially as described. I In testimony whereofI ailix my signature.

SAMUEL PEACOCK. 

